Consolidated Reporting

[buells]

Real life consolidation rules forbid proportional consolidation. You would take 100% of the accounts of the combined companies down to the net income / equity line as the consolidated and then attribute a certain proportion of net income and equity to non-controlled interest in subsidiaries. In practice, this really adds minimal value to financial statement users. There are better uses for the devs time than this.

[David]

In practice, this really adds minimal value to financial statement users. There are better uses for the devs time than this.

Agreed with your view.

[Berbe]

Reporting is merely a frontend to in-game state to me.
Lack of consolidated values opens for exploits.

I insist on the fact it would really help having a good reading on what is actually happening.
You got liberty on the presentation method. You can add dashboards with graphs helping the decisions processes if you want, it is what is done in real life.

One of the main problem in this game is the lack of some numbers not allowing a user who wants to implements his own poor's-man dashboards to do so.

In practice, this really adds minimal value to financial statement users. There are better uses for the devs time than this.

Agreed with your view.

This is an odd take for a business simulation.

[buells]

I think the reporting can be improved, especially on the balance sheet side. I don't agree that consolidation is 100% necessary because it is helpful to be able to look at the HoldCo balance sheet on a non-consolidated basis. It isn't that hard to do the rough math on adding up income across subsidiaries. I am not dead set against it, but it isn't something I feel I need.

The equity accounts are especially problematic. I think the issue is the merger accounting messing everything up. Instead of just writing off the excess of market over book value I think it needs to be put in a goodwill account. Even if you just put the goodwill as a contra-equity account that provides the same transparency without messing with the total book value!

It would be nice if the assets side were to have equity interests in affiliate stocks and non-affiliate stocks broken out. 75% or 50% threshold works, but 75% makes more sense because that is what you really need for control.

On the equity side it would be great to have the following:

- Common Stock (should just include equity offerings)
- Cumulative Earnings
- Cumulative Unrealized Gains (could be okay to just include this in cumulative earnings... kind of like accumulated other comprehensive income from US GAAP)
- Cumulative Dividends Paid
- Treasury Stock (Cumulative Repurchases)
- [Goodwill (could be asset or contra-equity account)]

[David]

I am not dead set against it, but it isn't something I feel I need.

I have the same feeling.